Top Goal with an Accountability Partner
Protect a daily block for your own priority and have a human physically present to force you to do it
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
If you spend all day responding to others' requests, you never advance your own priorities. Top Goal reserves a fixed daily block (30 minutes to a couple hours) to work only on your highest priority. Because willpower alone fails, Mochary pairs it with an accountability partner — a person physically or virtually present during the block whose mere presence forces you to do the work, like a gym trainer.
Origin
Mochary credits the Top Goal concept to Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism; the accountability-partner practice is Mochary's own addition.
Core principles
- 01Responding only to others' requests means never marching toward your own priorities
- 02You must both create priorities and reserve daily time to work on them
- 03Willpower alone often fails against tasks you don't love but that are necessary
- 04A present human forces the behavior the way a gym trainer does
- 05Presence works even remotely, though in person is slightly more effective
How to run it
- 1
Create your priority and reserve daily time
Define your top priority, then set aside a fixed amount of time each day (30 minutes, an hour, two hours) to work only on it.
Pro tip Even five minutes of adopting this practice can change someone's trajectory.
Watch out Merely adding it to your calendar isn't enough — Lenny notes he blocked it and still defaulted to checking Twitter.
- 2
Bring in an accountability partner
Have another person present during the block whose job is simply to keep you from doing anything but your top goal. They do their own work; you just need them there.
Pro tip Like a gym trainer, they don't teach much — they force you to do the thing you'd otherwise skip.
- 3
Use remote or app-based partners if needed
The partner can be in person or remote; there are paired-accountability apps (~$5/month) and 'buddy' features that match you with someone in real time.
Pro tip In person is a little more effective, but remote pairing still works.
In the wild
Mochary, who finds asynchronous solo tasks painful because he's so people-oriented, has someone sit with him during his top-goal time doing their own work, simply present to keep him on task. He even has his kids do it.
→ He's able to focus on necessary tasks he doesn't love; he recommends the same to CEOs whose personality matches his.
Common mistakes
Blocking calendar time without an accountability mechanism
Reserving the time alone relies on willpower that predictably fails — you drift to email or Twitter. Without a present partner (or app), the block quietly evaporates.
Drowning in others' requests with no protected priority time
If every hour goes to responding to inbound requests, you make no progress on your own priorities no matter how productive the day feels.
Is it for you?
Best for
People-oriented leaders and creators who can crank on meetings but stall on solo, asynchronous priority work
Not ideal for
People who already focus easily alone and don't need external accountability to do deep work
From the transcript
“top goal which um is this concept from McEwen who wrote essentialism”
“you need to a create priorities and then set aside some amount of time each day 30 minutes an hour two hours that you just…”
“during my topical time I have somebody sit with me and they wow prevent me from doing anything but my top goal”
“it's the same idea as a trainer in a gym”
“it's what I call an accountability partner there's even an app now”
From the episode
How to fire people with grace, work through fear, and nurture innovation
Matt Mochary (CEO coach)